To the rescue – perhaps, for those interested in how to think about ‘time’ – comes Italian physicist Carlo Rovelli with a book entitled “The Order of Time.” His book lays out the basic question: “Is time real or simply a useful measurement of change?”

In a beautiful review in “The Guardian”, Ian Thomson, who earlier wrote a biography of Primo Levi, puts Rovelli’s question into broader context, writing,

“The Order of Time, a deeper, more abstruse meditation, elucidates some of the key developments in the philosophy and physics of time. Fortified with quotations from Proust, and Anaximander… the book continues a tradition of jargon-free scientific writing from Galileo to Darwin that disappeared in the academic specialisation of the last century.

So to the point: How do I figure out what is going on with this great puzzle of time?

I began by listening on my I-phone to a new downloaded Audible recording of Rovelli’s “The Order of Time.” The book is read by that mesmerizing English actor, Benedict Cumberbatch. But as I listened I realized that my inattention to the road might have led to my own loss of time - death in an accident. The actor’s reading of the book is so compelling that I became distracted.

Instead, I began paying attention to the book via Audible in my study, a better prospect.

(Here is a reference to the Audible book, if you wish to check it out: The Order of Time Audible Audiobook, Carlo Rovelli)

Now, what does the book reveal?

Ian Thomson writes in a brilliant review, “Is time real or simply a useful measurement of change? The author of “Seven Brief Lessons on Physics” (Rovelli) takes us to the limits of our understanding with clarity and style.”

He continues, “Nobody said that relativity theory was easy. Einstein’s notion that time and space are essentially one (the concept of curved “space-time”) is the stuff of abstract poetry. Fortunately, the Italian physicist Carlo Rovelli writes of “warped time” and other tentative physics with incisive clarity. Known for his work on loop quantum gravity theory and the pre-Socratic Greek philosopher Anaximander, Rovelli is one of our great scientific explicators. His poetic essay collection Seven Brief Lessons on Physics sold more than a million copies in English translation in 2017 and remains one of the fastest-selling science books ever.”

Rovelli, the author, continues,

“Clock time, said Einstein, is an illusion. In his General Theory of Relativity(published over a century ago in 1915) he predicted that time passes more quickly “high up” than below, nearer to the Earth. So if a man who has lived at sea-level meets his twin who has lived in the mountains, he will find that his sibling is slightly older. Analogously, a clock placed on the floor runs a little more slowly than one on a table. So which of the two tells the real time? The question runs through Rovelli’s book. Einstein showed that there is no single 'now' but rather a multitude of 'nows.'”

All this violated not only anti-Jewish physicists of the Third Reich, but also philosophers within the Catholic Church in the 17th century – like Galileo -according to Thomson. All wanted to know what was real? Moreover, was it a sin to know? Kicking against the door of the established order, gives one more than a pain in the toe. The desire to know and understand surpasses all ages.

The reviewer continues, “Rovelli’s book opens with a discussion of Newton’s idea of absolute “true time”, ticking relentlessly across the universe. This is how most of us still imagine time, though Einstein showed that there is no single “now” but rather a multitude of “nows”. Rovelli goes on to consider Aristotle’s belief that what we call “time” is simply the measurement of change: if nothing changed, time would not exist. Newton chose to disagree. If the universe was to be frozen, time would tick on regardless.”

Here’s something you already know, if you read physics. Impishly, Rovelli tells us that Einstein knew that both Aristotle and Newton were right. Aristotle correctly explained that time flows in relation to a before and after; and Newton’s absolute time does indeed exist – but as a special case in Einstein’s “space-time” theory of gravity, which treated space and time as one and the same.

In Rovelli’s own elucidation, the Earth moves round the sun because of the distortion of “space-time” by the sun’s greater mass. An analogy presents “space-time” as a rubber sheet distorted by a heavy ball representing the sun; a smaller ball rolling by, representing a planet, will tend to fall into this depression, apparently attracted. In Einstein’s universe, this is what is known as gravity. Time runs slower wherever gravity is strongest, and this is because gravity warps or curves “space-time."

The riddle of time may ultimately be beyond our “blurred”, earth-bound comprehension, says Rovelli. All the same, in lucid pages, he manages to bring difficult ideas down a level. Not since the late Stephen Hawking’s A Brief History of Time has there been so genial an integration of physics and philosophy.”

My view: These are scientific issues that I try to understand. I am not discouraged. More broadly, I have a sense of an orderly universe, a very old idea, distinguishably beautiful in its essence - notwithstanding man’s destructive forays upon its physical integrity.

The Order of Time by Carlo Rovelli is published by Allen Lane.

Michael D. Langan is the NBC-2.com Culture Critic. Dr. Langan has written for The BBC, The Dublin Review of Books, and numerous U. S. publications.